'Walk down gracefully and elegantly as a Prince would,' instructed Olga to Selena one late morning.

Selena pursed her lips tightly and began to walk across the spacious almost empty ballroom. It was already the start of the Christmas break and as soon as she arrived home from King's Cross where she used Floo Network, she was told by her grandmother Olga that she would be taking lessons regarding etiquette and other specifications that she needed to learn and adapt quickly before the Brookes' ball. She had been critiqued from her bad posture to how she ate.

Olga clicked her tongue disapprovingly. 'That will not do,' she said, brandishing her wand and two books appeared on Selena's head and landed on the granddaughter's head gently and neatly. 'Now, walk again.'

Selena sighed and took one step; the books on top of her head wobbled dangerously that she stopped abruptly. She took another step but more slowly until she finally reached the end of the room. She was instructed by her grandmother to do it again and again until she was satisfied.

'That will be acceptable for now,' said Olga briskly. 'but I want you to do it properly next time.' She waved her wand again and the books vanished. 'The next lesson you will be having now is dancing lessons. It's not a torture, I assure you,' she said, seeing Selena's tired expression turned sour, 'It is enjoyable once you learn it.'

'Who's going to teach me?' Selena questioned.

'Monsieur Raphael Luini, an excellent dance instructor, will be teaching you,' answered Olga. 'He will be here within half an hour, so I expect that you dress accordingly.'

'What do you mean by that?'

'You,' said the grandmother in emphasis, 'are to wear dress robes. You will have to get used dancing while wearing it.

Selena couldn't help but stare at her disbelievingly. 'You can't be serious -'

'But I am,' she said to her. 'Now go up to your room and change.'

'Bloody hell,' Selena muttered under her breath as she walked out of the room and went upstairs.

'It suits you,' remarked Olga to Selena who just reentered inside the room. 'Tie up your hair,' she told her.

Selena grumbled and tied her somewhat unkempt hair with a piece of black ribbon. She walked toward Olga like she was told to do but was having a hard time due to the shoes she wore (it was an inch higher than the one she wore earlier) and the corset which caused her to breathe quickly.

'Madame Olga?' a heavily accented male voice drifted from outside. The door swung open and a tall blonde-haired man entered the room.

'Ah Raphael, you just arrived on time as usual,' said Olga, inclining a nod toward him. 'Let me introduce to you my granddaughter, Selena. Selena, he is Raphael Luini, your dance instructor.'

'It is a pleasure to meet your granddaughter, Madame,' said Raphael and curtsied to Selena.

Selena could only return a stiff nod to him.

Olga stood up from a chair she conjured and said to Raphael, 'I believe you know what to do,' she faced Selena and said sternly, 'you will follow everything Monsieur Raphael tells you to do. Is that to be understood?'

'Right,' she said tersely.

'I'll take my leave, then,' she left the room with the door closing behind her.

When the two were left all alone, Raphael said to Selena, 'Let's not waste any more time.' He began telling her the fundamentals of dancing and after a ten-minute lecture, he taught her the basics.

Selena thought the instructor would be like Olga but was mistaken; Raphael was understanding and patient, and he didn't make any derogatory remarks about her performance. It was uncomfortable for her to be a few inches away from him as they danced the waltz but she had told herself she just had to swallow it and do it. After a while, she had to admit that it was sort of fun in its own way.

Two hours later, Raphael told her today's lesson was over. 'Wonderful,' said Raphael to her. 'You're a fast learner. Just one comment regarding your performance: keep practicing wearing those shoes. I'll come again tomorrow.' He curtsied to her before turning his heels and left the room.

Selena nodded mutely and watched him go. She conjured a high chair inside the room and sat down on it. She kicked off the heels and realized she got some bruises from wearing it too long. She picked up the heels, left the room and went to her room to change. 'Who created these bloody torture devices anyway,' she said under her breath while attempting to remove the corset from her body. It took a while until she managed to disentangle herself from it. She looked up to the calendar and noted that she had only two more days to practice how to become a proper lady before the ball.

'Bugger,' she sighed deeply.

When the twenty-third of December arrived, Selena never felt so uneasy. It was already five-fifteen in the afternoon and she was already in her midnight blue dress robes. She was told by Olga to just wait inside her room for a moment and three minutes later, her grandmother entered the room with two persons behind her.

'Is she the one?' one of the two questioned briskly. She had chocolate brown hair tied in a high bun, aqua blue eyes and high cheekbones.

Olga nodded shortly. 'Selena,' she turned to face her, 'these two will be taking care of you.'

'What do you mean by that?' she questioned her.

'They will fix your hair and put you some make-up,' she said simply to her before leaving.

Selena looked at herself in the mirror and said, 'but I look just fine!'

The other woman with short dirty blonde hair and stormy-blue eyes clicked her tongue disapprovingly. 'Your 'air is 'orrible,' she said to Selena bluntly. 'We'll fix zat.' She took out her wand, did a flick and wave and scissors, hairclips and other objects soared out in the air from her small handbag. 'Sit still madame,' she told her. 'We'll add more volume to your 'air.'

Selena simply closed her eyes shut and hoped she won't look stupid or ridiculous (she would drink a cauldron-full of Draught of the Living Dead if she looked anything of the sort).

It was lively. The wide spacious ball room was filled with people wearing formal robes of different colors and sizes. Music filled the air as well as the laughter and conversations going on among groups of friends and acquaintances. On one corner, three young men stood together, holding glasses filled with Firewhiskey. The three of them wore similar expressions of boredom and they wanted nothing more than to leave the whole event. 'Can't we go outside?' Roderick complained, stopping his urge to ruffle his smoothen and fixed hair. He wore ink green dress robes that suited him perfectly.

'I'm afraid we can't,' said Cyrus dryly before taking a sip from his glass. He wore crisp black dress robes. 'And, your mother will have your head if you try to sneak out.'

'Shame we can't escape,' Mathayus shook his head; he wore blood red robes which he insisted it was not 'Gryffindor color'. 'Selena and her grandmother haven't arrived yet,' he noted, scanning the crowd before them.

'Yeah, I wonder how she'll look like wearing dress robes –' mused Roderick.

'Looking for me?' Selena's voice drifted from one side.

The three young men automatically turned their heads and their eyes widened in shock. 'Selena?' asked Mathayus in awe.

Selena looked very different from what they could remember from her. Her hair seemed to have grown longer was tied in a French twist and wore a fitted midnight blue dress robes that suited her greatly. She wore small rounded sapphire earrings, and her make-up was done perfectly; it wasn't too much but it was noticeable with rosy cheeks and painted pink lips. 'It's me,' she said to them with her usual drawl.

'You cleaned up yourself pretty well,' remarked Cyrus.

'Same goes to you,' said Selena in an almost mocking tone. 'I know I would sound vain but do I look all right?' she questioned them.

'You look really good,' said Roderick to her. 'We almost didn't recognize you.'

'I'll take that as a good sign, then,' said Selena. 'So what happened while I'm not here yet?'

'Nothing special happened,' said Cyrus to her. 'There haven't been any announcements yet so I'm assuming that they'll do it later.'

'Your parents haven't pinned you for some girl?' she raised an eyebrow at Roderick.

'Oh they did,' said Mathayus, joining the conversation now, 'He had been introduced to five ladies, two were from Beauxbatons.'

'And you didn't like any of them?'

'One of them, yeah,' shrugged Roderick, rotating his wine glass a bit with his hand. 'But she's a bit too talkative. Like I said before, I don't think I'm ready for engagement, marriage, or even commitment.'

She snorted. 'Right.'

'Has Olga ever introduced to any eligible rich wizards? Other than us, of course,' said the blonde curiously.

She scowled at the question. 'Yes, that's why I couldn't go to you three the moment she and I arrived here. One's from Italy while the other's from Spain, both of them attended Beauxbatons. I presume they know Simmons.'

'And?' pressed on Mathayus.

'There's another one from America,' she continued with annoyance, wondering why they were interested. 'He's three years older than I am and graduated from Ptolemy's Academy of Magic. It's an all boys' school.'

All three boys smirked, causing Selena to glare at them. 'Why are you smirking like that?'

'You seem to get a lot of information from him. Are you inte -?' teased Roderick.

'Of course not,' she scoffed. 'He was the one did the talking. I didn't ask him in the first place.'

As they conversed, Cyrus watched the dancing couples and said suddenly to Selena, 'Let's dance.'

'What? Why?'

'Because I'm bored and you made us wait,' he said nonchalantly, offering his hand to her. 'And I'm curious if you've taken any dancing lessons for the past few days.'

Roderick and Mathayus chuckled while she scowled deeply at them. 'I'll be next, Cyrus,' said Roderick.

'And of course, I'll be last,' added Mathayus with a grin.

Selena sighed and took his hand. 'Here goes nothing,' she muttered as she walked side-by-side with Cyrus through the crowd and into the dance floor. She placed her left hand on Cyrus's right shoulder with her right hand holding his left hand. She stiffened slightly as her friend placed his right hand nearly above the waist and let out a small sigh.

'I know this is uncomfortable for you but you'll have to get used to it,' reminded Cyrus to her. 'And now we dance.'

'I'm bored,' grumbled Sirius, taking another glass of wine from the floating tray of wine glasses and drank its contents. 'How long are we going to stay here?' he asked James who stood on his left side.

'It's eight-sixteen in the evening, mate,' said James to him, checking the time with his wizarding pocket watch. 'It's still a bit early. And for your question, I'd say we can leave after two hours, give or take. You can still survive, right?'

'I might,' he muttered mutinously. He watched the some of the couples dancing and noticed a certain pair. 'Who's the lady dancing with Avery?' he asked James again.

James looked up and eyed on the couple. 'I'm not sure,' he said. 'This is the first time I've seen her.'

Sirius watched the two curiously; as his younger brother Regulus past them by, he pulled him suddenly to him and asked, 'D'you know who that person Avery's dancing with?'

Regulus swatted his hand away from him before turning to look who his brother was referring to. 'I believe it's Prince,' he said while shrugging before leaving him.

'That's Prince?' James's eyebrow shot up in mild surprise. 'She almost looked unrecognizable.'

'Yeah, she is,' nodded Sirius absently. 'It must have taken a tedious time to make her look acceptable,' he added snidely, remembering her words back at Hogwarts.

'I must say, you danced pretty well,' commented Cyrus, twirling Selena with one hand.

'I had a good dance instructor,' said Selena shortly. When the song ended, she and Cyrus let go of each other and right in cue, Roderick appeared.

'I believe it's my turn,' grinned Roderick, positioning himself already with Selena just as a new song was played. He and Selena danced throughout the whole song; they teased and made scathing remarks with each other in low voices so that the others wouldn't hear them. When they're done, he said with a small laugh, 'You handled yourself well Prince.'

'I'm this close to hexing you again, Pucey,' said Selena too sweetly. 'Where's Mathayus?'

'I'm here,' said Mathayus, walking towards them. 'Eager much?'

Selena rolled her eyes. 'No, I want this over with.'

'Aye, aye milady,' as the music began, they followed. Unlike Roderick and Cyrus who were excellent dancers, Mathayus was average and they didn't dance throughout the whole music, just only halfway. As they left the dance floor, they reunited with Roderick and Cyrus at the balcony. 'You're a better dancer than I am,' said Mathayus to her.

'You didn't do badly,' said Selena. 'My feet are sore,' she added before shooting a small glare at the three.

'Don't blame it on us,' said Roderick while raising his arms in surrender. 'Blame it on your footwear. I don't know how you women survive wearing those things.'

'That's one of the things I don't like being a female,' sighed Selena as she looked up and stared at the night sky. 'If I were still Severus Snape, I wouldn't have to go to these kinds of events and I wouldn't have to worry about what to wear. Life seemed much simpler back then.'

'Yeah, it was,' nodded Cyrus. 'But it can't be helped; you're Selena Prince now and Severus Snape didn't really exist in the first place.'

'What did you say?' a familiar voice questioned the lot from the inside.

Selena, Cyrus, Roderick and Mathayus quickly turned to face the person and their eyes widened. Standing few feet away from them was no other than Regulus Black whose face was white from shock, his eyes wide and his mouth opened slightly ajar.

'Regulus -' said Roderick.

'What do you mean Severus Snape didn't exist in the first place?' demanded Regulus. 'I won't leave until you four explain to me.'

EDITED! I am glad one reader mentioned about the bit about Selena being introduced to other wizards.

Yes, Selena/Severus is seventeen is it the legal age in the Wizarding World but I think there could be a number of reasons wherein even an adult cannot be 'free' from their parents' hold of them a like contract of some sort (with magic, it would be less likely to escape from it).

I guess that's all I can say. Thanks for the reviews!